THE ongoing dispute between solicitors and the Minister for Justice over payment rates for legal aid clients continues, and is having a serious knock-on impact on the administration of the District Courts.
Contrary to suggestions by Minister O’Callaghan that the court system is operating at near normal capacity, the District Courts in Galway, Roscommon and Mayo, as well as in most districts throughout the country, are seeing the majority of cases adjourned, and this is leading to a backlog of cases which will put serious pressure on the system once the dispute is inevitably resolved.
Matters such as civil cases and defendants who do not come under the legal aid scheme and pay their solicitors privately are going on as normal, but the bulk of District Court cases are impacted by the dispute which centres on the introduction of a new flat-fee arrangement introduced in July.
At a sitting of Tuam District Court on Tuesday defence solicitor Sean Acton, speaking on behalf of his colleagues, told Judge James Faughnan that none of them wanted to be doing what they were doing and all were anxious to have the dispute resolved. However, until this was the case they would not be dealing with cases involving legally-aided clients.
He added that, contrary to popular belief, no solicitor in the District 4 Court District had carried out legal aid work since the dispute began.
He explained that no solicitor in the district had applied for or received payment under the legal aid scheme for two months.
“No legal aid certificates have been issued, no solicitor has been paid or will be applying for a cert until this matter is resolved, and I want to make that very clear to the public,” he said.
Mr Acton concluded that all involved want the dispute resolved and hope it would be as soon as possible.
Judge James Faughnan thanked Mr Acton for explaining the position and said he accepted that their position hadn’t changed. He added that like the practitioners he too hoped the issue could be speedily resolved.
